4 Smart Strategies to Acquire New Subscribers

Simply relying on heavy promotion to get new subscribers on your platform may not be enough. To persuade more people to sign up for your service, you will need to be more creative. This is especially important for highly competitive industries.

Hence, if you want to attract new customers, here are some strategies:

Set up a freemium tier for your service

A portmanteau of the words “free” and “premium,” freemium refers to a subscription type that allows people to enjoy a basic service and just pay for additional features. In a way, think of this subscription tier as a taste test. It’s easier to convince these people to upgrade to a premium subscription once they’ve seen the benefits of using your service or product. And even if these customers do not go for a premium subscription right away, you can still monetize the freemium tier by placing ads.

Offer flexible payment schemes, but don’t offer too many options

For some services, it’s best to offer more flexibility when it comes to subscriptions. Other than offering a free tier, you can set up billing for weekly, monthly, and yearly intervals. And thankfully, with today’s technology, it’s easier to implement this customer acquisition strategy through innovative payment channels and intelligent subscription billing tools.

However, it’s important to not go overboard. Offering too many types of subscription schemes won’t just create a headache for your accounting division. It can also cause potential clients to become so overwhelmed with choices that they end up not subscribing at all. So make sure to study the kinds of subscription plans that you wish to offer before making them available.

Rope people in with free trials and discounts

If a freemium tier is not entirely feasible, you can offer free trials and discounts instead. For example, people can use your platform for free for a week to evaluate if your service is what they really need. Or they can get 50% off your regular rates for the first few months of your subscription.

You can also add a student discount in the off-chance that once these students graduate, they may now be able to afford the full version. Apple uses this strategy for their music streaming service, Apple Music.

Build referral schemes and affiliate programs

Instead of hiring more people for your sales and marketing departments, why don’t you let existing subscribers become your brand ambassadors? Through a referral or affiliate program, you only need to pay current users when they convince people to become new subscribers. That’s way cheaper than paying the salary of additional sales associates, who may provide leads that don’t convert anyway.

Besides, the payment can be in kind, such as free months for an existing subscription, or it can also be in the form of a rebate on the next billing. And on top of that, these referral schemes can also encourage loyalty for existing customers. After all, once these customers start earning money using your platform or product, they would be more hesitant to switch.

These four strategies are just some of the many techniques to gain new subscribers. That said, it’s still important to study the market before implementing these strategies, as not all strategies are applicable for all businesses.